I’m driving at night, and I see people driving with their headlights off. Why? There was heavy fog on my way to work this morning-why don’t people use the headlights? Are you one of the culprits?
(BTW, it’s not like they’ve forgotten to put them on. I can flash my lights on and off at a car while stopped at a traffic light, and the driver still won’t put his/her lights on.)
At NIGHT!!!
When I came into this thread, I thought you were going to ask why people were driving without headlights on in the DAYTIME. This is because I see so many cars, in broad daylight, with their headlights on, on sunny days, when visual acuity and weather conditions are good. I think THAT’s the stupidest thing; why would anyone need their headlights on during the day? I never put mine on during the day, but at dawn/dusk/night I always do (especially if it’s foggy).
I can’t believe people KNOWINGLY drive without headlights in the dark. Certainly I’ve never seen it.
I seem to recall driving with no headlights in really bad snowstorms on roads with a very small amount of traffic. The street lights provided enough light, and it was much easier to see (headlights+snowstorm=blinding light from your own headlights).
I see it occasionally, but it mostly happens around here in the rain or the fog.
I don’t know why they do it. I turn mine on whenever I think that people’s view of me might be impaired - if they are driving into the sun, I’ll make sure they are on, and if I’m driving into the sun, I’m grateful when people coming the other direction turn theirs on.
I’ve never decided if it’s stupidity, forgetfulness or something else entirely.
Ehh … here in the US (and probably elsewhere) more and more new cars are equipped with Daytime Running Lights (DRL) which burn the headlamp at about 60% intensity. Supposedly helps make the car more visible to other drivers. I think our Canadian friends have had them for a lot longer than we have. On a lot of models, they’re wired to come on when the car is started and can’t be simply turned off.
Personally, I don’t mind them. The last two cars I’ve had were equipped with them, and I like to pretend I’m Canadian anyway. 
My car has DRLs.
What I don’t get are the people who don’t turn theirs on in the rain, and it rains quite a bit here. I know they don’t really help YOU see, but haven’t they noticed how much easier it is to see OTHER cars in the rain when they have their lights on??? I swear about 50% of people here leave theirs off, and it bugs the hell out of me.
I once forgot to turn mine on at night until I was halfway home, but I was extremely embarassed when I realized it.
Well, once or twice I have driven without headlights at night for a significant distance, before realizing it and putting them on (I am NOT proud of driving without headlights).
Basically I had ‘parking lights’ on (and the dash board seemed lit), and I also have Daylight Running Lights; meaning no one bothered to flash ‘lights off’ because nobody (not even cops) coming toward me even realized my headlights were off (of course, the rear lights were NOT on, but nobody seem to care from that direction either). The streets of NYC and southern Nassau County are pretty well lit at night, so much so that you don’t even need headlights to see the road - put all this together and it’s certainly possible to drive for awhile without realizing your lights are off.
Usually they are blind drivers. What with the braille road signs and all they forget about lights. When they come to traffic lights without braille lights they usually fix it up.
Most people are not well trained, and they are unobservant. I learned to ride a dirt bike when I was ten, and I’m still riding motorcycles. Riding in the dirt taught me to read the trail conditions and to react to them quickly. A large rock or some unexpected soft sand could cause a spill. In other words, I learned early on how to pay attention.
Most people don’t learn to drive until they’re in their mid-to-late teens. Their training period is short, and they generally learn just enough to pass the driver’s exam. (I’ve been told it’s much easier and cheaper to get a license here in the U.S. than in other places, so what they learn might not be much.)
I’ve referred in several threads to the Left Seat Passenger or Left Seat Zombie. LSPs are not really in control of their cars, but are merely along for the ride; they just happen to have a steering wheel in front of them. They talk on their mobile phones, talking to their passengers, listening to the radio, and so forth. These are not, in themselves, bad things; but they become bad things when they interfere with the operation of the vehicle. Inattention can lead to collisions.
Headlight switches have three positions: OFF, PPARKING/INSTRUMENT, and ON. Very often people will, thorugh inattention, not put the switch in the ON position. There are lots of lights in the city. Parking lots and streets can be so brightly lit that people don’t notice that their headlights are off. They see that their instrument panel is lit, and so they have no reason to think that their headlights are not on.
When you flash your lights at them, they are apt to think “Why is that person flashing his lights at me? What a Jerk!” It seems to me that many people have lost the comprehension of, or never learned, common signals. When I learned to drive, turning one’s lights off briefly was a signal to check one’s headlights. Flashing the high beam was a signal to the other driver to please dim his lights, or to verify that they are actually in the low-beam mode. Nowadays (in my observation) the dark-light driver will as often as not, not turn on his headlights. The high-beam driver will more often than not, not respond.
So to recapitulate: Drivers inadvertantly do not turn on their headlights. They don’t notice because they are often in brightly lit areas and their instrument lights indicate to them that their headlights are on. They don’t respond to signals because they have no inkling that their lights are off, and they don’t understand what turning one’s lights off and on again means.
Of course, it can happen to anyone; not just LSPs.
I drive with my headlights on full all the time.
I have DRL’s as well, but put my lights on full (not ‘bright’, of course) in the daytime to make my vehicle more easily seen by other drivers.
As for the OP and why drivers don’t turn their headlights on in the for/in the rain/at night…I have no idea.
I remember purposely driving in a thick fog with my headlights off but with the parking lights on. The headlights (in that instance) were just illuminating the fog more. I found that the amber lights were perfect.
This was in the middle of the night with almost nobody out on the road. I don’t know how well that would work in the city.
Well, they could be high on drugs, like Al Gore’s son.
During dusk and the break of day, some people can see - or think they can - well enough as to not need the lights. Now, personally, I think that time of day it’s crucial to have the lights on, because while I may be able to see the road in front of me and the cars around me, other cars may not be able to see me at all. And therein lies the real problem.
People generally won’t drive without lights if they can’t see; once it becomes sufficiently dark, they’ll flip the lights on. But if they presume they can see, they won’t bother, which means their fellow motorists will have difficulty seeing them.
For the past several weeks driving home from work I’ve seen at least one driver a night driving without headlights. This is approximately one hour after sunset. Weather conditions play no part because its been good, crappy, rainy, etc. The routes I take do not have sufficient street lighting to absolve anyone that there is enough light to see while driving.
As to the thought that driving with headlights is stupid, you might wish to reconsider the remark. Day driving with full headlights or DRLs is a very small price to pay for an enormous safety gain. The point is while you may see perfectly well in the day time, others may not be seeing you. Even on the clearest and brightest days driving cross-country across the flattest and treeless plains of America, one cannot always see oncoming vehicles. Driving with lights on changes that perspective.
I also remember, from a ride-along I did with our police department, that it’s not uncommon for a drunk driver to forget to turn his/her lights on. We saw one guy in a pickup driving at night with his off, so the officer told me about this tendency and turned around to pull the guy over. Guess what. The driver was drunk. So, like dantheman mentioned, apart from usual forgetfulness, drugs can often be a factor.
Re: DRLs. This isn’t something where someone said, “Ya know? I think it would be safer to require DRLs on cars. Let’s make a law.” It’s an issue that had been studied and tested for many years before they became common. There were stretches of road here and there that had large regulatory signs that said “Daytime headlight area. Turn on headlights for the next __ miles.” (The long, straight, undulating road leading to Little Rock and Pearblossom, CA was one such stretch.) The idea was to study if having one’s headlights on would reduce the number of collisions in the DHL area. I remember driving with my dad in the 1970s, and seeing the DHL area then and continuing into the 1990s. I don’t know how long the study lasted, nor all of the locations where it took place; but it was studied for many years.
I’m pretty good about turning them on all the time (day or night) even with my DRL.
One thing with my car is that because the dash is always lit (a nice deep red) it’s not always apparent from inside that my light’s aren’t on because I can see my head lights (DRLs).
What I don’t understand are vehicles with little or no lighting being on the road. One time I almost switched into a lane occupied by a vehicle with no head lights, 2 weakly glowing parking lights and 1 working rear light. I thought I was seeing some sort of reflection when I did a shoulder check!
Just a couple weeks ago I drove for about five minutes without my headlights on. My car has daytime running lights, and I was driving through a very well-lit neighborhood. I didn’t realize that my headlights weren’t on until I noticed my dashboard wasn’t lit and fooling with the instrument panel brightness dial wasn’t doing anything. Thankfully, such moments of inattention are not frequent with me.
That reminds me of something else, Siegfried - that little knob in most cars that allows the driver to dim the interior lights, including the dash. I can’t figure out why there was ever a need for this feature, and there’s also a certain danger to using them, as you mentioned: A driver could have the interior lights dimmed and therefore not realize he hasn’t turned his headlights on.
dantheman: I find that I prefer my instrument lights to be less bright. I usually have them turned all the way down. Still plenty of light to read them at night, and less distracting than having them at their brightest setting.